Now you're ready for the big move - the Advertising Campaign. Part 2

Start by placing a small classified ad in one of your local newspapers. You should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday paper that will reach as many people as possible, and of course, do everything you can to keep your costs as low as possible. How ever, do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be successful - to make as much money as possible with your idea - you'll need to reach as many people as you can afford, and as often as you can.

Over the years, i have launched several hundred advertising campaigns. I always ran new ads for a minimum of three issues and kept close tabs on the returns. So long as the returns kept coming in, i continued running that ad in that publication, while adding a new publication to test for results. To my way of thinking, this is the best way to go, regardless of the product, to successfully multiply your customer list.

Move slowly, start with a local, far-reaching and widely read paper, and with the prof its or returns from that ad, go to the regional magazines, or one of the smaller national magazines, and continue plowing your returns into more advertising in different publications. By taking your time, and building your acceptance in this manner, you won't lose too much if one of your ads should prove to be a dud. Stay with the advertising. Do not abandon it in favor of direct mail. I would not recommend direct mail until you are well established and your national classified advertising pro gram is bringing in a healthy profit for you.

Do not become overly ambitious and go out on a limb with expensive full-page advertising until you're very well established. When you do buy full page advertising, start with the smaller publications, and build from those results. Have patience; keep close tabs on your costs per subscriber, and build from the profits of your advertising. Always test the advertising medium you want to use with a classified ad, and if it pulls well for you, go on to a larger display type ad.

Classified advertising is the least expensive way to go, so long as you use the "inquiry method." You can easily and quickly build your subscriber list with this type of advertisement. I would not recommend any attempts to sell subscriptions, or any product from classified ads, or even from small display ads. There just isn't enough space to describe the product adequately, and seeing the cost of your item, many possible subscribers will not bother to inquire for the full story.

When you do expand your efforts into direct mail, go straight to a national list broker. You can find their names and addresses in the yellow pages section of your local telephone directory. Show the list broker your product and your mailing piece, an explain what type people you want to reach, and allow them to help you.
Once you've decided on a list to use, go slowly. Start with a sampling of 5,000 names. If the returns are favorable, go for 10,000 names, and then 15,000 and so on through the entire list.Never rent the entire list based upon the returns from your first couple of samplings. The variables are just too many, and too complicated, and too conducive to your losing your shirt when you "roll out an entire list" based upon returns from a controlled sampling.

There are a number of other methods for finding new subscribers, which i'll explore for you here, detailing the good and the bad as i have researched them.
One method is that of contracting with what is known as a "cash-field" agency. These are soliciting agencies who hire people to sell door-to-door and via the phone, almost always using a high pressure sales approach. The publisher usually makes only about 5% from each subscription sold by one of these agencies. That speaks for itself.Then, there are several major catalog sales companies that sell subscriptions to school libraries, government agencies and large corporations. These people usually buy through these catalog sales companies rather than direct from the publisher. The publisher makes about 10% on each subscription sold for him by one of these agencies.


Most major newspapers will carry small, lightweight brochures or oversized reply cards as inserts in their Sunday papers. The publisher supplies the total number of inserts, pays the newspaper $20 per thousand for the number of newspapers he wants his order form carried in, and then retains all the money generated. But the high costs of printing the inserts, plus the $20 per thousand for distribution, make this an extremely costly method of obtaining new subscribers. Schools, civic groups and other fund raising organizations work in about the same manner as the cash-field agencies. They supply the solicitor and the publisher gets 25% or less for each new subscription sold.

Attempting to sell subscriptions via radio or TV is very expensive and works better in generating sales at the newsstands than new subscriptions. PI (Per Inquiry) sales is a very popular way of getting radio or TV exposure and advertising for your newsletter or other publication, but again, the number of sales brought in by the broad cast media is very small when compared with the number of times the "invitation commercial" has to be "aired" to elicit a response.

A new idea beginning to surface on the cable TV scene is "Products Shows". This is the kind of show where the originator of the product or his representative appears on TV and gives a complete sales presentation lasting from five minutes to 15 minutes. Overall, these programs generally run between midnight and 2 AM, with the whole program a series of sales presentations for different products. They operate on the basis of the product owner paying a fee to appear and show his product, and also from an arrangement where the product owner pays a certain percentage from each sale generated from this exposure. Newsletter publishers often run exchange publicity endorsement with non-competing publishers. Generally, these endorsements invite the reader of newsletter "A" to send for a sample copy of newsletter "B" for a look at what somebody else is going that
might be of especial help, etc. This can be a very good source of new subscriptions, and certainly the least expensive.

Running ads in the Mail Order Ad Sheets is not very productive, either in terms of inquiries or sales. About the best thing that can be said of most of these ad sheets (and there seems to be a million of them with new ones cropping up faster than you can count them) is that your ad in several of them will let other people in on what you're doing. You will be able to keep track of a lot of the people trying to make a place for themselves in the mail order field.

Last, but not least, is the enlistment of your own subscribers to send you names of people they think might be interested in receiving a sample copy of your publication. Some publishers ask their readers to pass along these names out of loyalty, while others offer a monetary incentive or a special bonus for names of people sent in who be come subscribers.

By studying and understanding the information in this report, you should encounter fewer serious problems in launching your own successful specialized newsletter that will be the source of ongoing monetary rewards for you. However, there is an important point to remember about doing business by mail - particularly within the confines of selling information by mail - that is, Mail Order is ONLY another way of doing business. You have to learn all there is to know about this way o f doing business, and then keep on learning, changing, observing and adapting to stay on top.

The best way of learning about and keeping up with this field of endeavor is by buying and reading books by the people who have succeeded in making money via the mails; by subscribing to several of the better periodic journals and aids to people in mail order, and by joining some of the mail order trade associations for a free exchange of ideas, advice and help.